Kalaupapa Chief...

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When I first visited Kalaupapa, there were faces in just about every rock I looked at. It was kind of surreal. With 8000 souls buried there after so much tragic heartache and pain, the air is truly thick with kaumaha and the entire peninsula feels like a wahi kapu. I walked past a rather large black boulder, a sentinel who has witnessed the ravages of time. And in a tiny little pool of rain water in the boulder, I saw the profile of a kupuna ali`i, with mahiole, braided hair necklace, and a face disfigured by an unmerciful disease. There was no palaoa however, hanging down as the symbol of divine authority. This was no longer a place of ali`i, of gods who walked among men. With its unfathomable despair, and supreme sacrifices in the name of unconditional love, it was now only a place of God...

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